Associated Press
Norfolk, Va. – Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Wednesday that 2008 will be a year of violence worldwide and a recession in the United States, followed by a major stock-market crash by 2010.
Praying about events in the coming year and sharing what he believes God has told him is an annual tradition for Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network.
“The Lord was saying that there’s going to be violence and chaos in the world,” Robertson said on his “700 Club” news-and-talk show.
“We’ve just begun to see what’s going to happen, and the nations are going to be convulsed with violence,” he said, citing as an example unrest in Pakistan after the death of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Evangelism will increase because more people are going to be seeking God as the chaos develops, he said.
“We will see the presence of angels and we will see an intensification of miracles around the world, which I think is going to be a wonderful thing,” he said.
He also predicted that there will be a recession, oil will reach $150 a barrel and the U.S. dollar will continue to fall. He added that there will be a major stock-market crash in 2009 or 2010.
Robertson’s past predictions have included presidential politics; in 2004 he said God told him President Bush would be re-elected in a blowout. He declined Wednesday to say who will win the 2008 race.
“I’ll just keep that to myself and look with horror at what may be happening,” he said with a laugh.
Robertson also noted that one especially horrible prediction he made last year – that a terrorist act, possibly involving a nuclear weapon, would result in a mass killing in the United States – did not come to pass.
“All I can think is that somehow the people of God prayed and God in his mercy spared us,” Robertson said.
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